The L & A Veterans Council will host a Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony on Saturday, May 26. The paradewill start at 9:30 a.m. at Kennedy Park in Lewiston, will proceed to Auburn, and will return to Lewiston to end at Veterans Memorial Park on the corner of Lincoln and Main Streets, where the ceremony will begin around 10:30 a.m.

Invited to participate in the parade and ceremony, which will honor those who have given their lives for this country, are all Veterans Posts and their Color Guards (including Veterans Posts that aren’t members of the Council), along with groups representing all military branches, the National Guard and Reserves, ROTC, Civil Air Patrol, Young Marines, police, sheriff, and fire departments of any cities or towns, Knights of Columbus, Kora Shriners, Elks, Rotary, Eagles, D.A.R., and Boy and Girl Scouts. Such groups may participate with color guards, marching members, vehicles, floats, or horses.

The ceremony at 10:30 a.m. will open with the National Anthem, religious readings, remarks by the mayors of both Lewiston and Auburn, and music by Nel Meservier. This will be followed by a memorial service, including the placing of the wreath at the “Freedom Is Not Free” monument by Gold Star Mothers, three cannon shots by VFW Post 1603, Taps by Norm Bussiere, and a reading of the names of Veterans Post members who passed away this year. The event will conclude with the unveiling of the park’s 30thmemorial stone, inscribed with 216 names and the emblem of the Gold Star Mothers. Please bring your own chairs.

Following the ceremony, members of the L & A Veterans Council will be on hand with alphabetized lists of the names inscribed on all the monuments to help those attending find the names of their loved ones. For more information, call Bert Dutil at 786-2305.